Career: Surgeons
When our brain works properly, when our heart pumps normally, and when our bones and muscles move with ease, we are barely aware of just how remarkable a machine the body is. But when something goes wrong and that machine breaks down, the mechanic you need is often a surgeon. Surgeons mend bone and tissue and repair major organs damaged by disease and injury.
Surgeons are doctors who treat and correct injuries, diseases, and deformities by operating on patients.
Did You Know?
- Many surgeons specialize in such areas as brain, heart, and orthopedic (skeletal) surgery.
Are You Ready To...?
- Improve and save lives
- Examine patients before and after surgery
- Explain surgical procedures
- Spend years studying and training
- Keep up with advances in surgery
- Balance heavy workloads with your personal life
- Work closely with other doctors and health care professionals
It Helps to Be...
A highly self-motivated, compassionate, and decisive leader. Patients will depend upon you to enhance and save their lives by making critical decisions -- quickly and under pressure. And nurses, surgical technicians, and others in the operating room will look to you for leadership.
Make High School Count
- Take plenty of challenging math and science courses all through high school, including AP courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and calculus.
- Build communication skills in English composition, speech, and drama classes.
- Sign up for psychology to learn about human nature and explore the mind-body connection.
- Volunteer at a health clinic, hospital, women’s clinic, or elder care facility.
- Explore summer study programs like the University of Massachusetts’ High School Health Careers Program or the Health Careers Opportunity Program at the University of Montana.
Did You Know?
- The revolution in replacing body parts started about 50 years ago with the transplant of a kidney from mother to son.
Outlook
Government economists expect job growth for doctors, including surgeons, to be faster than the average for all careers through 2016. A large aging population means that more people will need medical services.
However, changes in health care coverage and advances in technology could potentially limit some demand for surgeons. Rural and low-income areas will have the most opportunities because fewer surgeons wish to practice in these places.
Compensation
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that surgeons earned an average yearly income of $184,150 in 2006. Salaries for surgical specialists, such as orthopedic surgeons, tend to be higher.
